Usher unmuted: Fans decry censorship of icon's BET Awards speech. Here's what he said

Usher’s confessions about the gratitude he feels for family, friends and fans fell victim to the mute button at the BET Awards on Sunday.

When the R&B icon received the BET Lifetime Achievement Award, he delivered a 13-minute speech that praised the people who helped him find and maintain success over the last 30 years. However, BET omitted large portions of the “Confessions” crooner’s acceptance speech, much to viewers’ and social media fans’ chagrin.

“Soooooo Usher’s entire speech is bleeped out,” one fan tweeted Sunday evening.

“It’s the silent acceptance speech for the viewers at home for me,” a second viewer tweeted. “Just go to commercial.”

Usher, who received his award from executives Babyface and L.A Reid, kicked off his speech honoring those who had been in his corner, joking about the timing of his award (“I’m still running and gunning”) and getting vulnerable with the audience at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles about his beginnings.

“I’m gonna take my glasses off because I want you to see my eyes,” he told his peers in attendance. “I want you to understand it’s real.”

The Grammy-winning singer, who took over the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show, talked how his father’s absence motivated him to seriously pursue his career in music and praised the father-like figures he turned to during his ascent. Then came his first censoring.

“Who have spoken to me, who have been solid no matter how [expletive] may have been,” he said of those father figures. “I’m sorry, I’m cursing to let you know how I really feel.”

Usher, full name Usher Raymond IV, continued his speech with a few more expletives, then BET kept the singer muted for several minutes during its broadcast, according to video shared on X (formerly Twitter.) Amid the silence and shots of attendees reacting to Usher’s speech, some words would break through seemingly at random. The silent broadcast inspired memes and annoyance on X.

“Usher is getting a Lifetime Achievement Award and we can’t even hear the speech?! BET is so trash!!!!,” reporter Mýa Melody said, also tweeting a gif of Katt Williams walking and holding a small blade in the movie “Friday After Next.”

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